Liverpool’s best FREE attractions to start the new year

As we enjoy the fun and festivities of Christmas and New Year, our bank balances inevitably take a harsh hit. But January doesn’t have to be a month endured indoors whilst the finances recover.

Liverpool’s vibrant cultural offering continues throughout the first month of 2019, with some top free-to-enter attractions to explore.

Curated by Natasha Young

Music meets football at Bands FC display

Where? British Music Experience (BME)

When? 7-13 January

What’s going on? ‘Bands as football clubs. Football clubs as bands’ is the way social media sensation Bands FC describes its work.

The concept, which combines football team badges with band logos, has amassed 45.5k followers on Twitter, 15.9k followers on Instagram, and is now bringing its free exhibition to the Liverpool waterfront attraction.

As well as seeing the complete set of designs at the BME’s Star Café, visitors will also have chance to buy prints and enamel badges with proceeds going to support Bands FC’s chosen charities and sports projects.

Last chance to see ‘Punk 1976-78’

Where? Liverpool Central Library

When? Until 13 January

What’s going on? Step back in time and see the impact punk had on UK music, fashion and design between 1976 and 1978.

This free exhibition, developed jointly by the British Library, Liverpool John Moores University and Liverpool Libraries, explores punk’s roots in the French Situationist movement and New York City art-rock scene through to the rise and fall of the Sex Pistols.

Highlights on display include the band’s handwritten set list and lyrics, John Peel’s personal copy of ‘Teenage Kicks’ by the Undertones, and The Damned drummer Rat Scabies’ leather jacket.

‘Beyond These Rooms’ brings art and performance

When? 17 January until 9 February

Where? Tate Liverpool

What’s going on? ANU and CoisCéim Dance Theatre will propel audiences into the tragic events of Dublin’s North King Street in April 1916, when 15 civilian men were killed in house-to-house raids by British soldiers, with a visual art installation featuring live performances.

The living archive project, built around witness testimonies from key government enquiries in the UK and Ireland into the incident, promises a personal experience as it brings together artefacts, imagery, video and documents to conjoin fact, documentary and fiction.